Almost 700 jobs are at risk at two call centres for home shopping retailer Shop Direct.

Webhelp, which operates the centres on behalf of Shop Direct, is planning to close the call centre on a site in Bolton early next year.

Another call centre operation on a site in Aintree is also expected to shut in spring 2017.

Webhelp’s workforce operating on the Shop Direct account will drop from 1,162 to 470 if the plans are executed in the next 18 months.

Bosses said the closure proposals are due to the reduction in call volumes anticipated over the next decade, together with the digital skills and infrastructure required to meet the changing customer needs that have been identified.

The plans also includes Shop Direct having a centre of excellence in Cardiff, with the remainder of operations being handled in South Africa.

David Turner, chief executive officer of Webhelp UK, said: “Consumer behaviour is continuously changing and as a digital retailer on a journey to becoming world-class, Shop Direct needs to be confident it can continue to anticipate the ways in which customers will want to communicate with its brands in the future.”

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He added: “This is purely a proposal at this stage and will be subject to thorough and meaningful consultation with trade unions, employee representatives and employees at each affected site.”

Webhelp, Europe’s third largest Business Process Outsource (BPO) provider, has created the proposal which has been put to trade unions.

Shop Direct chief executive officer, Alex Baldock, said: “Shop Direct is on a journey to transform into a world class online retailer.

“We’ve made a number of great strides in that direction this year with the removal of the catalogue and the consolidation of some of our legacy brands into our two power brands, very.co.uk and littlewoods.com.

“But our progress does not end there. Our customers are increasingly embracing digital as their preferred method of communication and we need to be able to respond to that demand.”

He added: “We set Webhelp the challenge of developing a customer service capability that would serve our customers’ needs over the next decade.

“They have responded to that challenge by reviewing the estate they inherited from Serco and recommending the proposals that have been outlined to the trade union today.

““This is purely a proposal at this stage and will be subject to thorough and meaningful consultation with trade unions, employee representatives and employees at each affected site.” Change can be difficult but it is necessary and we are confident that the proposals outlined by Webhelp will ensure we can continue to develop the fantastic digital service our customers are telling us they expect from Shop Direct.”